Hi everyone.
I hope you are enjoying FAF and I also hope the new server is working well for you.
As you know, my plan when I purchased FAF and worked with Ze_Pilot to get the old server turned back on was to transition FAF to community driven leadership.
I’ve spent a great deal of time over the last two months getting to know the community better by talking, chatting, and working with a lot of the people involved in FAF. I didn’t want to make any quick decisions. I wanted to learn what the “FAF community” really meant. Who contributed, want roles did they play, and how would they best be represented on the community leadership group I’ve been calling the “Council of Setons”. I came up with 8 parts of the community I think are key:
1. Players – this really speaks for itself. The player community of FAF is the heart and soul of FAF.
2. Client/Server Developers – these are the people that invest their time improving both the FAF client you download and use and the server processes the client uses behind the scenes that make the client work.
3. Patch and Balance Developers – the people who build the “FAF patch”, in-game lobby, and work on balancing units for the core of FAF gameplay itself.
4. MOD & Map Developers – equally as important as FAF gameplay is the rich library of game mods and maps we have.
5. Server Operators – these are the people who work behind the scenes to make sure the game server is working well, is fixed when things go wrong, and generally “run” the FAF website, core server, proxy server, etc.
6. Moderators – you know them and (unless you’ve been banned) you probably love them, the moderation team for both FAF client chat, games, and the forums. They help keep the FAF community from going insane.
7. Promoters – the people who help promote FAF via blogs, casts, contests, and other forms of promotion. They help grow the FAF community.
8. Administrators – people (such as myself) who help out with a wide variety of tasks, including some of the above and other things like finances, working with all of the teams to help progress, and generally help fill in and divide the big role Ze_Pilot played within FAF.
So while it’s not the absolute final list, I’m thinking these 8 individuals would represent the FAF community. They would each work with and help guide a team of people responsible for each area. For example we have several people working on the FAF client/server, and several who want to work on patch/balance moving forward.
For the first year and to get things started soon, I propose to select 7 of the first-year councilors. I am thinking that each councilor would serve for one year, and then each community group would select a new councilor. I’d leave it up to each group to determine how they select their councilor, only stepping in if no one can be selected. The 8th role, the player councilor, would always be elected by the community of FAF players – including this first year.
The council itself would vote on strategic plans, but leave the details up to each individual team. With an 8 person council we can have a tie vote. That is fine. I think if we have a tie, the community should work to go one direction or another. If we had a tie for an extended period of time, say a few months, then I would cast a tie-breaking vote. But only after all attempts to find a compromise have been explored.
These are my thoughts. As I said, this is not a final plan, but it is the result of my thinking over the last two months. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or other thoughts, please let me know by either:
posting on this thread:
http://forums.faforever.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8916
or by sending me a PM in FAF chat.
Thank you, and I look forward to you thoughts!
-Visionik